by Steve | Jan 13, 2024 | Jan-Feb 2024
Bigger Than You
By Kimberly Reisman
“‘The Israelite cry for help has come to me, and I’ve seen for myself how cruelly they’re being treated by the Egyptians. It’s time for you to go back: I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel, out of Egypt.’ Moses answered God, ‘But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ ‘I’ll be with you,’ God said. ‘And this will be the proof that I am the one who sent you: When you have brought my people out of Egypt, you will worship God right here at this very mountain’” (Exodus 3:9-12, The Message).
Each of us has a life picture – a picture of the way our life is or might become. These pictures are usually grounded on what we believe we can accomplish with our own strength and resources. The Exodus passage shows us how limited that kind of understanding can be. Moses had a life picture, but it didn’t involve leading God’s efforts to liberate Israel from slavery – “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11, NLT).
As Christians we serve a mighty God, creator of the universe, a God who is bigger than we can possibly imagine. It is that mighty God who has created our divine destiny, a destiny that is also bigger than we can imagine. Where our life pictures are rooted in common sense, the mighty God we serve has created a purpose for our lives that almost always defies common sense.
Do you remember the story of Jesus’ friend Lazarus who died before Jesus got there? When Jesus arrived, he told the people to open the tomb; but Lazarus’s sister, Martha, who like us, was limited by common sense says, “Lord, by now the smell will be terrible because he has been dead for four days” (John 11:39, NLT). Common sense holds us back from moving beyond our own life picture, toward the picture that God has for our future. Martha couldn’t move beyond her common sense, which told her what a four-day-old dead body would be like. Jesus had to remind her of God’s picture. “Didn’t I tell you that you will see God’s glory if you believe?” he asked her (verse 40).
The common sense that informs our life picture tells us, “I’m too old,” “I don’t have a degree,” “It doesn’t make sense.” But our created purpose does not stem from what we can imagine about ourselves. It stems from what God imagines about us – and that is always bigger, always better.
As Moses continues to argue with God about sending him on this mission, he protests, “O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now … I’m clumsy with words” (Exodus 4:10, NLT). We tend to echo that when we finally catch a glimpse of God’s purpose for our lives, “God, I could never do that; I’m not bright enough … I’ve been divorced … I’m in recovery.” But again, God’s response makes it clear that our picture is just too small, too limited. It shows us that God not only will be with us as we pursue our future, God will provide us with exactly what we need, when we need it.
“Who makes mouths?” the Lord asked him. “Who makes people so they can speak or not speak, hear or not hear, see or not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and do as I have told you. I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say” (Exodus 4:11-12, NLT).
God, the creator of our future, provides us with the tools we need to understand that future – not only in furnishing us with gifts and talents but in giving us ordinary tools in our everyday life experience, tools we may not recognize as significant. When Moses encountered the burning bush, he was carrying a shepherd’s staff, an ordinary stick that shepherds use every day. God told Moses to throw it to the ground; and when he did, God turned it into a snake. That ordinary staff became the source of extraordinary signs and wonders when Moses finally confronted Pharaoh.
We move from our limited life picture toward God’s created purpose when we recognize that God takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. Throughout my life I’ve had and continue to have many unchurched friends. I don’t believe that’s an accident. My passion in ministry is to empower leaders to reach out to unchurched folks, to help leaders make the journey of faith a relevant and meaningful experience for those who are taking their first steps on that journey. That’s how God works. God takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. Years ago, Mike Slaughter used an equation to illustrate this truth: Our ordinary experience and passion, plus God’s presence, equals a mighty work.
God’s purpose for our lives is always bigger and better than we can imagine when we limit ourselves to common sense, when we remain bound by the seeming ordinariness of our experience. Yet, God uses that ordinariness for his purposes when we open ourselves to God’s picture for our lives, reminding ourselves that it’s not how we imagine ourselves that is so crucial to grasping our future; it’s how God imagines us that counts.
Kimberly Reisman is Executive Director of World Methodist Evangelism (worldmethodist.org), a ministry that equips the global Wesleyan Methodist family of Christians for the work of evangelism. This article is adapted from her book, Knowing God: Making God the Main Thing in My Life (Abingdon). Used by permission of the author.
by Steve | Jan 13, 2024 | Jan-Feb 2024
Until the Work is Done
By Rob Renfroe
Some have asked about the future of Good News – and understandably so. Our sister organization, The Confessing Movement, has concluded its work to reform and renew The United Methodist Church. More than 7,000 churches have now left the denomination. The bishops have said it’s time to be done with disaffiliation. And leading centrists have said that churches wanting to leave should do so by the end of 2023.
It would be reasonable to ask, “Isn’t the work of Good News done? You worked to maintain a biblical sexual ethic in the church’s Book of Discipline – and were successful. You provided resources for churches contemplating disaffiliation and many have said it was the information you provided that made the difference for their congregations. You helped churches find the legal aid they needed when their bishops misused their authority and denied congregations fair treatment and justice. And Par. 2553 in our Book of Discipline that provides a path for leaving the UM Church expires at the end of 2023. So, good job, but it’s over. What’s left to do?”
But it’s because Par. 2553 terminates at the end of the year that the work of Good News must continue. In the United States, some churches considering disaffiliation were told by their bishops, district superintendents and pastors (I heard them say it), “You don’t have to make a decision now. In fact, you shouldn’t make a decision now because you don’t know what the General Conference will decide in 2024. Nothing has changed in the UM Church and it may be that nothing will change. Wait to see what GC 2024 does and then you can determine whether you should stay or go.”
Those representing the UM Church said these things knowing (1) that paragraph 2553 would expire at the end of 2023, (2) that all centrist and progressive leaders along with the bishops said they were committed to supporting gay marriage and the ordination of practicing gay persons and (3) there would not be enough traditionalist General Conference delegates remaining to prevent the 2024 General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, from changing the Book of Discipline. They told churches to wait, knowing that the bishops were done with disaffiliation and had no intentions of creating a new way out for traditional churches.
I get it. Traditional churches that have remained made a mistake. But I also get that it’s hard for good people to believe that a pastor, a district superintendent, or a bishop would mislead them. So, some congregations that trusted the UM Church to be honest and fair will find themselves wanting to leave next May after the General Conference meets and will not have an approved pathway to do so. Getting out will be a battle. Good News feels compelled to help them fight that battle.
Even more egregious is the unjust treatment that churches outside the United States have received. The bishops ruled that Par. 2553 does not apply to churches in Africa, the Philippines, and other places outside the U.S. So, the pathway that American churches have used to exit the UM Church has been denied to the majority of United Methodists who live in other countries. When I asked a UM bishop if any bishops were making plans to allow those outside the US to leave, the answer was, “Well, I’ve heard some talk about it.” I pressed, “Do you know of any progressive or centrist leader or bishop who is working on legislation for GC 2024 that would allow the Africans to leave?” The bishop’s response was “no.”
The bishops want to be done with disaffiliation – they’ve stated that. It’s apparent they have no desire and no plans to prepare a similar path for international churches to exit the denomination that we in the U.S. were afforded. When I was in Nairobi, Kenya, this September with over forty African leaders, they referred to this double-standard as “colonialism.” And the regionalization plan that the bishops and centrist leaders are promoting so that the U.S. will have its own version of the Book of Discipline and the Africans will not be able to speak into it – that plan, the Africans referred to as “the apartheid plan.”
International delegates know how they have been mistreated by UM leaders. They are very aware that they have been marginalized, discriminated against, and denied justice. When I spoke to the leaders in Nairobi I told them, “You came to the U.S. for decades to fight about issues that were not African issues and that were already settled in the Bible. Still, you came over and over to help us when we needed you. And now that you need us – we’re not going anywhere. We’re staying with you. We’re fighting with you. And we are seeking justice for you.” Even now we are partnering with our African friends in promoting their attempt to receive an exit plan from General Conference 2024.
One of two scenarios will come out of GC 2024. The one that is preferable will provide a pathway similar to Par. 2553 for all UM churches, American and international. If this is the case, Good News will help congregations around the world considering disaffiliation understand where the UM Church is headed and why traditionalists need to leave.
The other possibility is that traditional churches inside and outside the U.S. will be denied justice. In this scenario, churches will need to look at their options and determine their best way forward.
Good News is committed to using all we have learned during this season of disaffiliation to support and coach these churches as they exit the UM Church. Some will leave quietly and start new congregations. Outside the United States, entire annual conferences may decide to leave, as happened earlier this year in Kenya. Other congregations will feel a need to seek justice in the secular courts.
This path is unpleasant, arduous, and emotionally exhausting. Fighting discrimination and oppression always is. But fighting for justice is not something churches in the U.S., Africa, the Philippines and other countries elsewhere will do alone. Because Good News isn’t going anywhere. We’re staying. Until the work is done, we’re staying.
Rob Renfroe is the president and publisher of Good News.
by Steve | Jan 12, 2024 | In the News, Perspective / News
Start Off 2024 with an Act of Rebellion
By David F. Watson
There’s nothing more central to the postmodern Western mind than radical autonomy. Put more simply, we can express the common mindset of our age as something like, “I’ll do what I want and be who I want. I’ll live as I want and die as I want. I am my own master, and none will master me.”
Whether we’re talking about gun laws, abortion, gender identity, sexual expression, or “medical aid in dying” (assisted suicide), our default conviction is, “My will be done.”
We don’t normally perceive this mentality any more than fish perceive the water in which they swim, but it guides our thoughts, words, and deeds. Our minds are neatly conformed to the patterns of this age.
Orthodox Christianity offers us a remarkably different vision of the self. The NRSV renders Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The phrase “to this world” in this passage is more accurately translated “to this age” (Greek: aión).
The current age misshapes our minds. We’re like out-of-tune instruments. In order to discern what is good and acceptable and perfect – about ourselves, other people, and God – we must be transformed. It is necessary for God to renew our minds by the power of the Holy Spirit. As God does this necessary work, we see the world with increasing clarity. The scales come off of our eyes. The Holy Spirit heals the corrupting influence of sin on our minds, and the ways in which we were conformed to the present age become ever more apparent.
If my students or former students are reading this right now, they’re probably rolling their eyes. I’m like a broken record on the epistemic consequences of sin, also called the noetic effect of sin. These are just ten-dollar phrases which mean that sin warps the way we think. The patterns of this age are distorted by sin, and we soak in this distortion by osmosis from the time we’re born. (Yes, I know I talk about this too much but it’s important, okay? No, I’m not defensive. Why do you ask?)
I’m a Wesleyan. Nothing against Calvinism. It’s just not my jam. Being a Wesleyan, I believe we can resist the effects of God’s grace in our lives. What is crucial if we wish for God to renew our minds is a posture of openness to the transforming love of God. That means we give up our commitment to self-will and offer ourselves in joyful obedience to God’s will.
Wesley’s covenant prayer is a great way to enter a posture of openness and obedience to God. I recommend praying this prayer not just at the beginning of the year, but throughout the year. It is a beautiful expression of obedience and devotion to the God who saves us.
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
Seedbed also offers a contemporary rendering of John Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service, which would be great to use in small groups or Sunday morning worship.
Begin this year with an act of rebellion against the patterns of this age. Begin to know yourself as God knows you. Yield to God. Make yourself fully available to receive his transforming power. We Christians are no longer our own. We are God’s. To live out this truth may be treasonous to the spirit of this age, but then, as Jesus said, no one can serve two masters.
David F. Watson serves as Academic Dean and Associate Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University, and is an ordained elder in the Global Methodist Church. Dr. Watson is also the lead editor of Firebrand. This editorial is reprinted from his Substack column found here. Duccio di Buoninsegna was an Italian painter in the late 13th and early 14th century. His Pentecost painting is found at The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, an art museum in Siena, in Tuscany in central Italy. Public domain artwork.
by Steve | Jan 5, 2024 | In the News
Leave Your Stuff Behind
By Maxie Dunnam
Tucked away in the Old Testament story of Joseph’s journey into Egypt is a verse packed with far more meaning than appears on the surface. It teaches an eternal truth that we’d do well to consider as we enter the New Year. Rehearse the story.
Sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph found favor with the Pharaoh and became one of the trusted officials in Pharaoh’s court. A strange irony of fate, obviously the providence of God, brought Joseph and his brothers who had betrayed him together again. A famine had ravaged the land of Canaan. The people were without food, and they came to Egypt seeking to buy food from the Pharaoh.
It was soon revealed that the person with whom they had to deal was the brother they had sold into slavery. The tables were turned. Here they were asking for food from the person they had cast away. When it came to Pharaoh’s attention that Joseph’s brothers had come, it pleased him. He instructed Joseph to bring the whole family away from Canaan, promising to give them the goods of all the land of Egypt, and it is at this point that a power-packed Scripture passage is found. “Do this, said Pharaoh, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, bring your father and come. Give no thought to your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours” (Genesis 45:20). King James’ version translates that word this way: Regard not your stuff, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours.
There’s all sorts of meaning in that. Another translation has it – leave your stuff behind.
Six years ago, my wife Jerry and I moved into a “life care community.” We have not had a single reservation. Being a Methodist preacher, we have moved numerous times. At our age and station, our intention is this is our last move, until the Lord moves us home with him. Though comfortable with that fact, we were not prepared for both the emotional and physical ordeal. Moving is tough!
The monumental issue: what do we move? What do we leave behind? Moving from 3600 square feet to little more than one third that size didn’t help. It’s amazing how much “stuff” you can accumulate in 66 years of marriage. Thus, the pressing question, “What stuff must we leave behind?”
I invite you now to take a huge emotional/spiritual step with me … What is the stuff, the real STUFF, we need to leave behind as we move into 2024? Let’s be honest.
Self-pity is one bundle of stuff I want to leave behind. I don’t know of a heavier burden which many of us carry than self-pity. It’s the kind of burden we are unwilling to drop off. Someone hurts our feelings, and we carry our hurt with us forever. We’re treated unfairly and we never forget it. Something happens in our family, and it seems that we’re being put down. Someone else is receiving special treatment, so we get a kind of stepchild complex. We suffer physically and we get the idea that the whole universe is out to persecute us. Such an easy snare to fall into, self-pity. Let’s leave it behind this year.
The second bundle of stuff we need to leave behind is what I call illegitimate responsibility. I’m talking about the responsibilities which we rigidly claim for ourselves, but which don’t legitimately belong to us. You know what I’m talking about? We bury ourselves beneath a great burden of responsibility we can do nothing about; that really doesn’t belong to us. We have simply, illegitimately assumed it.
Our journey into this New Year will be more meaningful if we can determine that there are certain responsibilities which are ours. These we will accept and give our resources to. There are other responsibilities which we simply have to leave with others and with God. Let’s leave it behind.
Along with self-pity and illegitimate responsibility, (we can’t name them all) I mention one other bundle that needs to be cast off as we stride into this New Year. I call it the bundle of cancelled sin. The phrase comes from Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Oh, For A Thousand Tongues to Sing.” He claims that this is the work of Christ:
“He breaks the power of cancelled sin/ He sets the prisoner free/ His blood can make the foulest clean/ His blood availed for me.”
Scores of people who beat a steady stream to my study door for counseling are burdened down by cancelled sin. Somewhere in the past, they have done those things, been involved in those situations, had relationships about which they feel morbid guilt. They carry this burden around as an inside burden which no one knows about. But like a malignancy, it grows and spreads until it poisons the person and brings a sickness unto death. I doubt if there is a reader who does not have an idea what I’m talking about. The memory – the haunting memory of some past wrongdoing devastates our life.
It is the very core of the Christian gospel that God through Christ forgives our sins, and our sins are cancelled by God’s grace. But obviously, this fact and experience are not enough. Cancelled sin still has power – destructive power, in our lives. How then is the power of cancelled sin actually broken? Here is the key: confession and inner healing. I believe that under most circumstances, not only confession to God but confession to another is essential for healing and release from the power of cancelled sin. This is the reason James admonishes us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16). Once we have confessed to a minister or to an intimate friend, the poisonous guilt that has been bottled up inside is released.
A medical analogy is apropos. When an infectious boil appears somewhere on the body, antibiotics are given. If these do not destroy the infection, usually the infection is localized and has to be lanced. The surgeon uses the scalpel and opens the boil in order that all the poison might be drained.
Confession is something like the surgeon’s scalpel. Honestly opening our lives in confession, the poisonous guilt we have bottled up within has a chance to flow out. Confession becomes the cleansing process by which the self is freed from the power of cancelled sin.
Now there are two requisites for redemptive confession – one, you must trust the person, the person or the group, to whom you confess; and two, your confession must not be destructive to another person. We dare not disregard the health and wholeness of another in order to seek our own release. The big point is that the burden of cancelled sin is too great for us to carry into the New Year. You can leave that stuff behind because God forgives. Let us leave it behind.
2024 is a new year. Leave your stuff behind – self-pity, illegitimate responsibility, cancelled sin, all your junk. Leave it. You are forgiven. Your failure and weakness are accepted. Your past is buried in the sea of God’s loving forgiveness. Go into the New Year with Christ, and go joyfully.
Maxie Dunnam is minister at large of Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. During his more than sixty years of ministry, he has pastored congregations of all sizes, as well as serving as world editor of the Upper Room and president of Asbury Theological Seminary. He is a prolific writer, having authored more than forty books, including The Workbook of Living Prayer which has sold more than a million copies and is printed in six languages. This article was first published by Wesleyan Accent published by World Methodist Evangelism and is reprinted here by permission (worldmethodist.org). Image: Shutterstock.
by Steve | Dec 29, 2023 | In the News, Perspective / News
Faith in a Time of Transition
By Thomas Lambrecht
Advent is a season of preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and preparing for his coming again. Advent reminds us that we are in the time “between the times.” We are in the time between Jesus’ first and second Advents (comings). As Professor George Eldon Ladd reminded us, we are in the transition between the already and the not yet.
God’s Kingdom has already come to earth in the form of King Jesus and in the hearts and lives of Jesus’ followers, including us. But God’s Kingdom awaits its full realization when Jesus comes again “to judge the living and the dead.” The book of Revelation and other Scripture passages paint a glorious picture of what the fullness of God’s Kingdom will mean.
But it is uncomfortable to be in between, to be in transition. We have an idea what is coming, but we are not there yet.
Some of my grandchildren have a problem with transitions. It is hard for them to stop doing one thing in order to do a different thing. My daughter has to prepare them for the transition by warning them, “We are going to stop playing and get in the car in five minutes.” That warning enables them to adjust their minds and expectations to what is coming next.
We are in a transition time in The United Methodist Church. Those remaining in The United Methodist Church are in the process of revisioning what the church will look like and how it will operate with fewer members and churches.
Those joining the Global Methodist Church are in the process of creating new annual conferences in various parts of the U.S., as well as in countries overseas. Critical decisions have yet to be made, such as how to elect and assign bishops.
Those churches becoming independent are figuring out how to operate without the support of a denominational structure.
In all cases, we are leaving behind what is familiar and heading into uncharted territory. We have some idea what the future might look like, but there are also many unknowns.
It is tempting to want to stay with what is familiar, even though that world of the past is no longer available to us. The Israelites in the Wilderness longed to go back to slavery in Egypt, at times. Yet the slavery they would have gone back to would have been different from the slavery they left. There is no such thing as going back to what we once knew.
That is why Paul reminds us, “We live by faith, not by sight” (II Corinthians 5:7). Often, we cannot see the pathway to the future God has for us. However, we can trust the One who leads and guides us each step of the way. We can stay stuck in the past, or we can follow the living Lord into the incredible future he has for us. Each day, we can take the next step God has for us, knowing it will eventually lead us to our true home with him.
Mary and Joseph did not know what the future held when they agreed to become the human parents of the Savior of the world. No father or mother knows what the future will hold on the day their child is born. Yet, we have children in hope for the future and in faith that God will lead and guide us into and through that future.
The decisions we are making now in our churches, are decisions guided by faith and hope in a future held by God. They are decisions that should not be guided by fear or a desire to cling to the past, but are decisions based on a confidence that God will not let us down.
Transitions remind us we are not in control. The wisest saying I have ever heard is, “God is God, and I am not!” That saying has become a mantra for me, acknowledging my life is not my own, but God’s. He is in control. My role is to respond to his leading and be faithful to what he is calling me to be.
Yes, transitions are uncomfortable. Journeying into an unknown future can be intimidating. We can walk through this transition with confidence by adjusting our expectations. Things will not be like they once were. In this season, there is no way to keep what once was. Our only course is to walk into a future we choose, guided and empowered by God, just as Mary and Joseph did. All the rest is up to the Lord.
I pray you experience a blessed and rich Christmas celebration, filled with the joy and peace of Christ.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News. Artwork via Shutterstock. Stained glass window at The American Church in Paris, France.
